This record-breaking quasar “devours” the equivalent of the Sun per day
Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's VLT telescope have studied a bright quasar and found that the object is not only the brightest of its kind, but also the brightest object ever observed.
Quasars — These are galactic nuclei powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this quasar is increasing its mass by an amount equivalent to the mass of one Sun per day, making it the fastest growing black hole known.
Astronomer Christian Wolf from the Australian National University said: «We have discovered the fastest growing black hole known to date. It is 17 billion times the mass of the Sun and “eats” a little more sun per day. This makes it the brightest object in the known Universe. The quasar, named J0529-4351, is so far from Earth that its light took more than 12 billion years to reach us.
Its black hole emits so much energy that quasar J0529-4351 is more than 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun. This black hole's accretion disk, seven light-years in diameter, is the largest accretion disk in the Universe. Seven light years — this distance is approximately 15,000 times greater than the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.
Co-author of the study Christopher Onken emphasizes: “It is surprising that this quasar remained unknown until today, when we already know many less impressive quasars.” The object was first spotted in the ESO Schmidt Sky Survey in 1980, but was only identified as a quasar several decades later.
Searching for quasars requires precise observational data over large areas of the sky. But the volume of this data is so large that researchers often use machine learning models to analyze and distinguish quasars from other objects. However, such models rely on existing data, which limits potential candidates to only objects that are similar to known ones. If the new quasar is brighter than all previous ones, then the program may mistakenly confuse it with a nearby star.
Data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite, processed by an automatic system, also did not recognize J0529-4351 as a quasar and «accepted» him for a star. Just last year, astronomers identified it as a distant quasar using observations from the 2.3-meter ANU telescope in Australia.
However, a larger telescope and more precise measurements were needed to confirm that this was the brightest quasar. The X-shooter spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's VLT in the Chilean Atacama Desert provided scientists with final data.
The fastest growing black hole ever observed will be the target of the European Southern Observatory's VLT GRAVITY+ interferometer, which is designed to accurately measure the mass of black holes. In addition, the 39-meter ELT telescope, which will be built in the Chilean Atacama Desert, will make the identification and further study of such unusual objects even more accessible.